


The Four Loves

by ultramarcypan



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-23 21:18:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8343160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultramarcypan/pseuds/ultramarcypan
Summary: “I’m thinking about love,” he admits, shifting slightly on the bed.

Viktor laughs again, louder this time, and the sound echoes around the room.  “That’s a heavy thing to be thinking about so late at night.” 
Love, after all, is a complex thing that isn't limited to just one form.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I swear, I was going to wait on writing fanfiction for this fandom until we got further in and I had a better understanding of the characters and their quirks, but then episode three happened and that just went straight out the window.

 

The night after the contest, Yuuri celebrates with a pork cutlet bowl that Viktor watches him dig into with no small amount of amusement.  He says nothing, however, and Yuuri lets himself bask in the triumph of the moment, savoring every single bite of his meal.  Around him, his family chatters excitedly about his win and he can feel his lips pulling up into a small smile as he listens to them.

Briefly, he spares a thought for Yurio and lets himself be sad for a moment for the younger skater.  He’s all too familiar with the crushing disappointment that comes from losing on the ice, especially where Viktor is involved.  But Yurio is still young, and far more sure of himself than Yuuri had been at his age, and he has no doubt that the other will bounce right back.  A small part of him also admits that he’s selfishly glad that Viktor is staying with him, but he pushes that thought to the back of his mind.  It’s not in his nature to be spiteful and vindictive, though he won’t deny how proud he is of his win and how happy he is that Viktor will continue coaching him.

He catches Viktor staring at him, and his face turns red.  Nervously, he turns his attention back to his food and doesn’t look up again until Viktor has looked away.  Yuuri’s only just starting to learn all the quirks of his long time idol, and he knows that a look like that means Viktor is going to want to talk to him later.

*

Sure enough, Yuuri is sitting on his bed later that night when there’s a knock on his door.  He knows who it is without asking, but still does so out of years of habit.  “Who’s there?”

“Viktor,” comes the response, and Yuuri isn’t surprised at all by that.  The knob turns, and a familiar face appears in the crack.  “Can I come in?”

Yuuri hums his consent and Viktor pushes the door open fully, stepping into the room.  He only gets a few steps in before he’s almost bowled over by an excitable ball of brown fur that launches itself at Yuuri.  Yuuri lets out a shriek of laughter as Makkachin pins him to his bed, seemingly intent on licking him to death.

“Makkachin,” Viktor calls, and then he says something in Russian that Yuuri doesn’t understand but the poodle clearly does, because he obediently jumps down off the bed and settles himself in a corner of the room.  “Sorry about that,” Viktor says, pulling the door shut behind him.  He moves to join Yuuri on his bed, and automatically Yuuri scoots over to give him room.  “He really likes you.”

“I don’t mind,” Yuuri says, glancing over at Makkachin.  The poodle’s ears prick up and his tail wags.  “I like Makkachin too.”  He gets a ‘boof!’ of agreement from the dog and smiles.

Viktor huffs a quiet laugh, and Yuuri takes a moment to just stare at the man he’s admired for such a long time.  Viktor meets his stare with a steady gaze and bright eyes, and Yuuri ducks his head in embarrassment.  Mercifully, it seems like Viktor’s not in a teasing mood tonight because he lets it go without a single comment.

“You performed well today,” he says instead, and Yuuri’s chest swells at the praise.

“Thank you,” he says shyly.  Viktor tilts his head in consideration, studying the younger man carefully.

“What’s on your mind?” he asks abruptly, and Yuuri blinks in confusion.  “You were thinking about something before I came in.”  It’s a statement, not a question, and Yuuri gave up days ago trying to figure out how Viktor always seems to know what he’s thinking and feeling before he does himself.

He hesitates for a moment, uncertain if he actually wants to share with the other or not, but in the quiet of his room, staring into bright blue eyes that have yet to leave his face, Yuuri’s fear of being mocked dissipates into the air.  “I’m thinking about love,” he admits, shifting slightly on the bed.

Viktor laughs again, louder this time, and the sound echoes around the room.  “That’s a heavy thing to be thinking about so late at night.”  The older man says, but there’s no trace of mockery in his tone.

Yuuri lets out a quiet laugh of his own.  “I guess so,” he says, tucking his feet under him.  Viktor leans back on the bed, bringing his arms behind him to support his weight.

“And just what about love were you thinking off?”  

“The different kinds of love,” Yuuri says, before his brain has given his mouth permission to speak.  Viktor’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

“Inspired by the program today?”  Yuuri’s never heard Viktor sound so serious before, and he suspects that may be the reason that he answers the others’ question.

“A little,” he says in response.  “There are four kinds of love, even though we only had two in the program today.”

“Philia, Eros, Storge,and Agape,” Viktor confirms.  “And what about them?”

“I was thinking about what they all mean to me,” Yuuri blurts out, and Viktor’s eyes widen.  Immediately, he regrets what he's just said and ducks his head in embarrassment.  There’s a long stretch of silence between them, where the only sound in the room is the thump of Makkachin’s tail against the floorboards.

“Philia,” Viktor says abruptly, and Yuuri starts at the sound.  “It’s the love between friends.”

“Yes,” Yuuri agrees uncertainly, not sure where the other is going with this.

“And to you it means?”  Viktor presses, and Yuuri has a moment of understanding.

“Oh!”  He says in surprise, and then hastily follows that up with,  “I was thinking about Yuuko.”

“The Yuuko who runs the skating rink?” Viktor asks, and Yuuri nods.  “You’ve been friends for a long time then?”

“She’s the one who introduced me to ice skating,” Yuuri says quietly, and fondness blooms in chest as he recalls the long days on the rink with her, skating hand in hand, laughing over silly things and having long conversations about nothing and everything all at once.  His thoughts must show on his face because Viktor lets out a soft, thoughtful hum.

“You’re...close to her?”  There’s an odd note in his voice, one that Yuuri can’t place and is only half aware of as he’s lost in his memories.

“She’s probably my best friend,” he says absentmindedly, and he’s so lost in thought that he doesn’t catch the brief frown that flashes across Viktor’s face.

“Storge is the love of family,” he says suddenly, and Yuuri blinks at the change in conversation.  “But I suppose I don’t have to ask you what you thought about for that.”

Thoughts of his mother, so sweet and sturdy, of his father who’s so cheerful, if not a bit blunt at times, and his sister, who supports him in her own quiet way rush to the forefront of his mind.  “No,” Yuuri agrees. “I suppose you don’t have to ask me about that one.”

“Then I’ll ask about Agape,” Viktor says, leaning forward so that he can let his hands rest in his lap.

“Unconditional love,” Yuuri says, tilting his head thoughtfully.  “That one is...hard.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well,” Yuuri says, folding his own hands neatly in his lap as well.  “With the three other loves, there’s a focal point-family, friends, an object of lust.”  Viktor murmurs in agreement and Yuuri continues his explanation.  “It’s easy to conceptualize them, because we can associate them with specific people or objects; we make the abstract concrete, and that’s how we define that love.  But with Agape…”

“There’s no specific focal point,” Viktor finishes, and Yuuri nods.

“Right,” he says.  “It’s a much broader spectrum, which makes it more difficult to think about and pin down.  On top of that, it’s hard to sell as an act, because of that vagueness; people understand about the love between family and friends, or they understand sexual desire , but a pure love like Agape is almost impossible to put into words, and just as hard to put into motions.”  He hesitates for a brief moment before he decides to add the next bit.  “I think that between the two pieces you gave us, that one was harder to skate to; I’m not sure I could have done as well as Yurio did.”  Yuuri admits, and Viktor offers him a smile.

“The reason I gave that piece to Yurio is because of what you just said,” Viktor says by way of explanation.  “The fact that you realized that alone is evidence  that you have a much better grasp on it that he does right now.”

“So the only reason I got Eros is because you wanted to get him to understand Agape?”  Yuuri questions, trying his best not to be disappointed by this thought.

“No," Viktor says.  “He needed to understand Agape and you needed to understand Eros--you both already understood the other before I gave you your pieces.”

“I understood what romantic love was!”  Yuuri protests, and Viktor gives him a look.  “In theory, anyhow,” he concedes with a mumble.

“Theory is one thing, practice is another,” Viktor points out, and Yuuri doesn’t have an argument for that one.  It’s silent again for a long while between the two of them, until Yuuri can’t bear it anymore.

“And do I understand it in practice now?”  He blurts out, and Viktor turns to face him properly.

It strikes Yuuri in that moment that he’s alone in his room with the man he’s idolized for years, wearing nothing but a pair of old pajamas, barely a foot away from the man.  His heart pounds against his ribcage, and it takes all his willpower to not scoot back on the bed to create an invisible barrier between the two of them.

“You tell me,” Viktor counters, and Yuuri focuses on him instead of on his heart which is currently trying to escape from his chest.  “Is Eros still just pork cutlet bowls to you?”

“No,”  Yuuri whispers.

“Then what is it?”  Now, Yuuri has no idea if he’s being mocked or not, but he does know that Viktor already knows the answer to the question he’s just asked; it’s evident in them gleam in his eyes, in the predatory smirk on his stupid, beautiful face.

Later, Yuuri will swear that he doesn’t know what came over him in that moment.  Maybe he was still high off of winning the competition that day.  Maybe it’s because he had been afraid he would never get another opportunity like that in the world ever again.  Or maybe it was because he was so, so tired of being underestimated by everyone, and he was going to prove then and there to himself and Viktor that he wasn’t afraid of being himself.

What he does know is that, instead of answering the question with words, he launches himself forward instead, pinning Viktor the same way that Makkachin had pinned him just a bit ago.  Viktor lets himself be pinned, lying complacently beneath Yuuri, looking totally at ease with not a care in the world.  “That’s a very forward answer, Yuuri,” he says and Yuuri’s torn between throttling the other and kissing him on his dumb, perfect mouth.

He settles on kissing him--and it’s awkward and their noses bump together and Yuuri is mortified briefly but then Viktor’s kissing him back and his hand are threading through his hair and he finds he’s not as bothered by the clumsy kiss as he should be.  They break apart when air becomes a necessity, and Yuuri moves so that Viktor can sit back up properly.

There must be just a small bit of daring left in him after his bold move, because the next thing out of his mouth is the very cheeky question of, “Does that answer your question?”

“I believe it does,” Viktor says in response, and then he’s leaning forward and kissing Yuuri again and all of a sudden conversation falls by the wayside.

*

“I didn’t know you had it in you to be so daring,” Viktor murmurs into Yuuri’s ear hours later, while they’re lying curled up next to each other.

“I didn’t either,” Yuuri mumbles back, pressing closer to Viktor.

“Maybe this is a sign I should push you more in your training,” The other man ponders out loud, and Yuuri lets out a tiny groan.

“I don’t know how much daring my heart can handle.”  He burrows deeper into the pillows.

“More than you think you’re capable of,” Viktor says confidently, and Yuuri flushes at the praise.  He can sense Viktor’s smug smirk behind him and twists around to kiss him if only to shut him up.  It’s proving a remarkably effective method of getting the other to behave, as Yuuri’s found in the past hour or so. 

Sure enough, when he pulls back just slightly, Viktor’s eyes are sparkling and he looks a bit dazed.  Yuuri’s content to tuck his head under Viktor’s chin as the other wraps his arms more securely around the younger man.  He’s almost asleep when--

“So does this mean that you were thinking of me when you were skating earlier today?” Comes the sly question, and Yuuri prepares himself for another round of kissing if only to keep Viktor quiet.


End file.
